Judith

As a child, of course I knew that my first name was biblical, and that it’s usually said to mean “Praise”.  There were quite a lot of other Judiths  at school, but it’s one of those names that have gone completely out of fashion, like other names that were popular then.  There were loads of Barbaras, Susans, Judiths and Margarets, but no baby is ever given these names nowadays.

Anyway, I only found out about Judith’s story as a teenager. She’s in the apocrypha; she was a widow who used her feminine wiles to seduce an Assyrian general, Holofernes, whose army was besieging Judith’s city, Betula. She got him dead drunk and cut his head off, then took the head back to the city, where it was displayed on the walls. This caused the Assyrians to lift the siege. According to the Apocrypha, she never lost her virtue to Holofernes although she was in the Assyrian camp for two or three days. Hmmm.

I had a spell of rather seeing her as a feminist icon, but then it dawned on me that using one’s sexuality to murder someone is hardly what we should be aiming to encourage.

We saw quite a number of representations of Judith in Florence. It’s a very popular subject for renaissance, and later period, artists.  I don’t quite know why, except that it often seems to have given artists an excuse to show rather scantily dressed females, disguised as a biblical subject. But they don’t seem to have needed the excuse, really; there are lots of nudes purporting to be someone classical. Maybe the association between an attractive young woman and extreme violence was what appealed.

There are at least two versions of the Judith story painted by Artemisia Gentileschi. She shows Judith as a strapping, practical woman.

Gentileschi

Gentileschi

 Well, I can easily imagine why a woman painter in a man’s world chose the subject. A lot of the representations add a maid who is helping Judith either by holding Holofernes down, as in one Gentileschi, or carrying his head in a basket as in Botticelli’s small masterpiece, where Judith and the maid are tripping cheerfully along. The basket on the maid’s head might be full of dates.

Botticelli

Donatello’s sculpture shows Judith determined, with sword raised, about to do the deed; the Gentileschi shows Judith sawing away and gouts of blood. 

Caravaggio painted her twice; once she’s shown fully clothed in a rich gown, looking very serene; once she’s shown rather more in dishabille,  with an expression of distaste, like someone having to clear up a horrible mess, as she saws at Holofernes’ neck .           

Some artists used the topic to depict dangerously seductive women. I expect Freud would see the story as representing a fear of castration. Certainly Klimt’s portrait of Judith is of a glorious, terrifically sexy, dangerous maneater. Surely Klimt’s Holofernes could have guessed  his fate?

Cranach painted several Judiths, as sexy minxes, looking rather self satisfied at having Holofernes’ head; Metsys took a similar approach, but his Judiths are rather more unclothed and more openly sexual.  See below:

 There's also a modern artist who recreates some of the paintings with models and takes photographs. I can't quite see the point, but something about the Judith and Holofernes story certainly seems to appeal to creative types, even now, when even the name is out of fashion.